Miami football ranks No. 78 in returning production

Trinton Breeze

Jun 4, 2026 1 min read

The 2026 college football season is quickly approaching here as we are already in the month of June. The football season is getting closer and teams are now preparing for summer workouts.

In one of ESPN writer Bill Connelly's latest college football articles, he ranked every team in the FBS on returning production for the upcoming 2026-27 season. He ranked the model by returning production, offensive ranking, and defensive ranking.

According to Connelly, he currently ranked the Miami Hurricanes No. 78 overall in returning production (49%). He has the Hurricanes offense sitting at (48%) and their defense at (74%).

Miami had 19 players transfer out of Coral Gables and 16 players entered their name into the NFL Draft. The Hurricanes retained 10 total starters from this past season.

Check out the ACC list in returning production:

4. Virginia Tech
22. SMU
27. Syracuse
33. Stanford
36. Virginia
41. Pittsburgh
43. California
48. Florida State
58. NC State
59. Clemson
60. Louisville
62. Wake Forest
73. Boston College
77. Duke
78. Miami
79. Boston College
103. North Carolina

Football is almost here. It's coming!

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Comments (21)

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Jun 4, 2026

BigDikDaddyFromCincinnati

Jun 4, 2026

Here's a summary for those who don't feel lke reading:

Jonnyblaze

Jun 4, 2026

BigDikDaddyFromCincinnati said:
Here's a summary for those who don't feel lke reading:

View attachment 364182

Correct. Clemson was like top 5 on that list last year and we saw how that played out.

MovingZen

Jun 4, 2026

LOLOLOL, anyway. 74% of the defensive returning production.. the side of the ball that made us NC contenders. moving on to more intelligent offerings...

Allabouttheu95

Jun 4, 2026

Not that I really give a **** but what am I missing here: we have a ridiculous amount of returning production at every position

TheOriginalCane

Jun 4, 2026

Trinton Breeze said:
The 2026 college football season is quickly approaching here as we are already in the month of June. The football season is getting closer and teams are now preparing for summer workouts.

In one of ESPN writer Bill Connelly's latest college football articles, he ranked every team in the FBS on returning production for the upcoming 2026-27 season. He ranked the model by returning production, offensive ranking, and defensive ranking.

According to Connelly, he currently ranked the Miami Hurricanes No. 78 overall in returning production (49%). He has the Hurricanes offense sitting at (48%) and their defense at (74%).

Miami had 19 players transfer out of Coral Gables and 16 players entered their name into the NFL Draft. The Hurricanes retained 10 total starters from this past season.

Check out the ACC list in returning production:

4. Virginia Tech
22. SMU
27. Syracuse
33. Stanford
36. Virginia
41. Pittsburgh
43. California
48. Florida State
58. NC State
59. Clemson
60. Louisville
62. Wake Forest
73. Boston College
77. Duke
78. Miami
79. Boston College
103. North Carolina

Football is almost here. It's coming!

How is this possible, when Malachi Toney had 150% of our receptions just by himself....

TheOriginalCane

Jun 4, 2026

Allabouttheu95 said:
Not that I really give a **** but what am I missing here: we have a ridiculous amount of returning production at every position

"Not at QB".

Oh, and don't forget the massive loss of Alex Bauman....

IndayArtHauz

Jun 4, 2026

SP+ has some real blind spots, and has yet to adapt to the transfer portal.

You have more returning production at WR and QB, if you count them as what they produced last year. But it hasn’t adapted and Connelly knows it.

OL is the only real reduced production across the board. Even at DE, you’re replacing two DEs with one who had just as many snaps and yes, a backup.

TheOriginalCane

Jun 4, 2026

IndayArtHauz said:
SP+ has some real blind spots, and has yet to adapt to the transfer portal.

You have more returning production at WR and QB, if you count them as what they produced last year. But it hasn’t adapted and Connelly knows it.

OL is the only real reduced production across the board. Even at DE, you’re replacing two DEs with one who had just as many snaps and yes, a backup.

This is a fantastic point.

I don't have the full list, but let's use Indiana as a comparison. They lost a HEISMAN WINNER at QB, yet they've taken a pretty good transfer. So good that most of the too-early rankings are putting Indiana in the Top 5.

Which "should be" impossible, if not for the fact that they are replacing Mendoza with a productive transfer QB.

SFbayCane

Jun 4, 2026

Im guessing that losing Carson Beck was the single biggest negative data point for our offense.

CampHillCane

Jun 4, 2026

Obviously, based on those rankings, "production" and "talent" are not the same thing.

Allabouttheu95

Jun 4, 2026

TheOriginalCane said:
"Not at QB".

Oh, and don't forget the massive loss of Alex Bauman....

So do they look at this from a returning miami player outlook only? Not accounting for transfers in?! If so that is the most ridiculous outlook in college football in 2026 lmao

TheOriginalCane

Jun 4, 2026

Allabouttheu95 said:
So do they look at this from a returning miami player outlook only? Not accounting for transfers in?! If so that is the most ridiculous outlook in college football in 2026 lmao

Apparently.

They should just give a blanket "75% of prior-year/prior-school production" discount to all transfers.

Golsen82

Jun 4, 2026

TheOriginalCane said:
How is this possible, when Malachi Toney had 150% of our receptions just by himself....

Malachi #1... then the rest of the ACC teams follow

Trav

Jun 4, 2026

It is what it is and don't read too much into it. If an 0-11 team returned all 22 starters they would be "#1" in "returning prduction." So.. whatever.

LeavingJesusland

Jun 4, 2026

88 said:

Off topic….Elvis’s granddaughter is

P
PalyCane

Jun 4, 2026

Connelly is in love with his own metrics and algorithm, but they suck.

Here's his final rankings for the end of the 2025 season. Yes, this is his end of season ranking. He has us at #9

https://www.espn.com/college-footba...llege-football-sp+-rankings-all-136-fbs-teams

N
NCCanefan

Jun 4, 2026

Trinton Breeze said:
The 2026 college football season is quickly approaching here as we are already in the month of June. The football season is getting closer and teams are now preparing for summer workouts.

In one of ESPN writer Bill Connelly's latest college football articles, he ranked every team in the FBS on returning production for the upcoming 2026-27 season. He ranked the model by returning production, offensive ranking, and defensive ranking.

According to Connelly, he currently ranked the Miami Hurricanes No. 78 overall in returning production (49%). He has the Hurricanes offense sitting at (48%) and their defense at (74%).

Miami had 19 players transfer out of Coral Gables and 16 players entered their name into the NFL Draft. The Hurricanes retained 10 total starters from this past season.

Check out the ACC list in returning production:

4. Virginia Tech
22. SMU
27. Syracuse
33. Stanford
36. Virginia
41. Pittsburgh
43. California
48. Florida State
58. NC State
59. Clemson
60. Louisville
62. Wake Forest
73. Boston College
77. Duke
78. Miami
79. Boston College
103. North Carolina

Football is almost here. It's coming!

Not sure this stat tells us very much. Anybody ever see a stat on how well this correlates with the next year's overall ranking?